


wild thing (you make my heart sing)

by snowyxiu



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: First Meetings, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Kinda, M/M, Pet Store, Snakes, i think theres a swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 21:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14481678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowyxiu/pseuds/snowyxiu
Summary: felix likes snakes, but the boy at the pet shop sure doesn't.





	wild thing (you make my heart sing)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [directorscut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/directorscut/gifts).



> hey sar! this is really short and not that great, but i still wanted to get it out there to cheer you up a bit ^^ ily!!!
> 
> also, to everyone, the title is from the song with the same lyrics. no one's heart sings, per se, but changbin's sure jumps out of his chest.

Felix never thought that he would miss the somewhat questionable wildlife of Australia. 

Back in Sydney, he had been no crocodile hunter, but he had enjoyed running into his backyard and playing with the centipedes under logs and chasing the lizards that scurried across the dirt. Now that he was in South Korea, he was lucky to find an ant crawling across the sidewalk in front of his family’s concrete apartment. It wasn’t unbearable in any way; it was colorful enough and there was a park not too far down the street, but it was no Sydney. Everything was different, from the sights, to the sounds, and even the smells. He normally wouldn’t let it bother him, but sometimes the homesickness was too strong to ignore. 

There was a pet shop nearby, and Felix knew this only because he looked it up on his phone while sitting on the grass at the park, desperately searching for some little creature to entertain him. The moment he pulled up the directions, he got on his way. 

The pet shop really was not too far from the park, and he wondered why he hadn’t ventured down that way before. He shrugged it off, instead swinging open the door. In his excitement, the bell rang a bit to brashly, causing a boy behind the counter to jump up. 

“Sorry,” Felix said in his sweetest voice (which was difficult for him, being a bit deeper than the average high schooler). “I got excited.”

The boy at the counter laughed it off. “What brings you here today?”

“Ah…” Felix could feel the blush rising in his cheeks. Who knew that one of the workers at the pet shop would catch his eye before the animals did? “I— I just came to look, you know. If that's okay?”

The cute boy nodded (Felix squinted at his nametag, but he was still a bit rusty with the new language). “Do you want a tour around?”

“Yes,” Felix answered, before realizing that he had just agreed to follow the cutie around the shop. 

The boy smiled and stepped out from behind the counter. Now that they were side by side, Felix realized how much shorter the boy was. 

“Changbin,” he said, reaching out a hand. “You keep looking at my name tag, so I assume you wanted to know my name. 

Felix gulped, but still managed to take the worker’s—Changbin’s—hand. “Felix.”

“Nice to meet you,” Changbin said, then began his little tour of the shop. “A foreigner?” he asked when they had reached the birds. 

“Y-yeah. I moved here last month.” 

“Ah, that makes sense.”

Felix laughed and asked jokingly, “Am I that bad at Korean?”

Changbin brushed a finger over his bare arm, making his skin tingle. “No, you’re great. You can speak one more language than I can. Plus, your accent is cute.” A wink, then he turned away to lead the tour. They passed by furry little pets, fish, and lizards. However, after the lizards, something caught Felix’s eye. 

“Snakes?”

Changbin coughed. “Yeah. Wanna take a look?” 

Felix nodded and ran over to the cage. He could hear Changbin’s yelp of “careful!” behind him, but he chose to ignore it. 

Inside, there was a pale yellow banana ball python, curled up on a paper towel roll. “Can I pet him? Oh my god, he’s so cute.” 

“Just be careful!” Changbin said again. 

Felix, who was never the kind to be careful, opened the cage and took the happy noodle out. He turned around to face the worker, who cried out in fear. “Isn’t he cute?”

“F-Felix, I can’t—”

“What?” asked Felix, not quite understanding the Korean (and obviously not the body language). 

Changbin pushed Felix back towards the cage, speaking in a somewhat distressed tone. Felix, being the graceful thing he was, stumbled backwards and knocked the top off an enclosure. A brown common kingsnake slithered out gracefully. Changbin yelled and scampered backwards, and Felix gently placed the ball python back into his home and looked around for the other snake. 

 

“Fuck!” Changbin screeched, looking around frantically. 

“Why didn’t you catch it?” Felix groaned, looking for where the creature could have possibly gone. 

Changbin cried, “I just said I was scared of snakes, weren’t you listening?”

Oops. Maybe Felix should practice his Korean more often. 

“Uh…”

“Don’t just stand here, help me find the snake!”

(Felix knew that he probably shouldn't mention that the worker was just standing there as well)

As he looked around for the snake, he babbled on about how common kingsnakes were too stealthy and mischievous, and how the pet shop really should have had a better enclosure for the reptile. “The top fell off way too easy.”

Changbin muttered something that Felix couldn’t understand, but it was probably for the best anyways.

A few minutes into their search, a crash and a yelp came from another part of the shop. Changbin was far from helpful, only contributing to the noise, probably saying, “Where’s the snake? Where’s the snake?” Felix clamped a hand over the worker’s mouth. 

Loud footsteps could be heard from around the corner, and oh, the snake was slithering towards them. 

Felix found himself set off balance as Changbin jumped on top of him, and muffled screams turned into loud cries. Another worker with light hair and an almost squirrel-like face skidded in front of the aisle. He lunged for the snake, but, as characteristic of common kingsnakes, the creature was able to wriggle away without much difficulty. Between Changbin’s horrified cries and the other guy’s loud swearing, he barely heard the boy with frizzy hair who popped into the aisle and wrapped his hand around the whole snake. 

“There ya go, lil buddy,” said the frizzy haired boy who carried the snake away. 

Changbin, finally noticing the position he was in, let go of Felix and stood on his own two feet. His coworker sent him an odd expression, and Changbin said, “Don’t even start, Ji.” The boy shrugged and walked back the way he came. 

The two of them, now left alone in that aisle, stood in silence. Felix noticed how Changbin’s cheeks reddened. (From embarrassment? Fear?)

“I’m—”

“No, don’t say anything. I’m sorry for being very unprofessional. The situation could have been handled much more easily.” 

“No, don’t say sorry. You can’t help what you’re scared of.”

Before either of them could say anything, the boy with frizzy hair came back. “Everything alright?” 

Changbin nodded. 

“I’m sorry the snake got loose,” Felix began, ignoring the tug on his arm. “The enclosure isn’t really sturdy, and a kingsnake like that has an easy time escaping. You guys should make sure that the top is tight enough.”

“Thank you,” the worker said, reaching over to pat Felix on the shoulder. “I’ve been trying to fix it, but it seems like we just need to get a new top.”

The two chatted a bit about kingsnakes, then the worker left. Felix didn’t catch his name. 

“You talk like a little kid,” Changbin said, as they were left alone again. 

“What?”

“Your sentence structure is really simple. It’s cute.”

The Australian boy wasn’t sure how to take that, so he only looked down at his feet. Despite the fact that Changbin had spent a good 10 minutes embarrassing himself, he was as confident as before, and now Felix found himself becoming the flustered one. 

“Hey, how about we go out for ice cream, my treat. My shift is over anyways. You caught me as I was finishing up.”

Felix didn’t know how to respond to any of that. Ice cream? With a cute boy? Alarms went off in his head. The cute boy had offered him a tour of the shop even though his shift was over? By now, his brain had slid down the fire pole and was lost somewhere on the floor. 

“Did you understand that?” 

Felix nodded. “Yes, yes! And…yes.”

Changbin laughed. (Felix decided that he liked the way Changbin’s face lit up.) “Alright, cutie.”

(A week later, due to a slip of the tongue, Felix asked Changbin to be his boyfriend. Changbin agreed, as long as Felix didn’t have a pet snake.)


End file.
